Premier says nothing will change on provincial front when it comes to Cat ferry

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

The rally in Halifax, the videos on YouTube, the signs on lawns, the emails, the statistics, the anticipated job losses, the phone calls – they all present a compelling argument on why this region can’t do without ferry service this year.

But the premier says nothing will change the mind of the provincial government when it comes to funding The Cat – or more to the point, when it comes to not funding The Cat. “Nothing has changed in relation to this,” Premier Darrell Dexter told The Vanguard in a telephone interview last Thursday. “It’s not a viable service without a very significant subsidy from the province of Nova Scotia. That decision has been made and it’s not going to be revisited.”

And as for starting up a dialogue with the federal government, Dexter said any questions about federal funding shouldn’t be posed to the province. He said those questions should be put directly to the federal government because the province has already made up its mind and it is not reversing its decision.

He added the decision not to fund The Cat was not arbitrary, nor was it done without full investigation and forethought. “It was done in order to allow for us to put in place an appropriate transportation strategy for southwestern Nova Scotia,” he said. Asked if he sees “an appropriate transportation strategy” as including some form of ferry service, he responded by saying, “The reason that we’re waiting for the ACOA transportation study is to determine exactly what is in the best interest of the region. I don’t want to prejudge by ruling anything in or out of what those recommendations might be.”

Asked why the provincial government didn’t wait for the release of the study before making a decision about The Cat, Dexter said there was no need to because the study was not going to change the facts. “The viability of The Cat was not going to be changed by the study. It’s just not a viable service. There was a shrinking ridership and the returns on the subsidy had diminished dramatically.”

Unless The Cat is sold, the province is going to be paying Bay Ferries up to $3 million as part of a service termination clause that was included in a one-year contract negotiated with the previous Progressive Conservative government. In that contract the PC government chose to only fund the service for one year, even though Bay Ferries was looking for a two-year commitment.

Many people question why if the government is going to pay $3 million for the ferry to sit idle, it won’t pony up a few more million to have it running and contributing to the economy of the province.

But that, said Dexter, would just be putting off the inevitable. If the government doesn’t pay the $3 million when the service ends this year, it would likely just have to shell out the $3 million for the same purpose next year. “I can’t go into the details of the contract but obviously it was a provision designed to help the company cover its debt servicing costs and the costs of maintaining the boat while they’re searching for a new buyer,” he said.

Dexter notes that Yarmouth never got the real full benefit out of The Cat, compared to other regions. The majority of people who got off the boat never stuck around here.

And more significantly, he said, it arrived and departed at times that didn’t force people to have to stay overnight in Yarmouth to catch the ferry, unlike the way they had to in Bar Harbor and Portland for morning departure crossings. “Ultimately one of the questions here is why isn’t the State of Maine interested in supporting this service? They’re willing to lobby us for it, but they’re not willing to put money up to sustain it,” said Dexter. “You have to ask why Canadians should be paying to support a service that is substantially of benefit to people in the United States?”

But surely, the premier is asked, The Cat also benefits this province because of the people it transports here? Yes, he agrees, whenever anyone visits Nova Scotia there is always an economic impact to it. “But you’ve got to ask whether or not it’s proportionate to the investment that you’re making,” he said. And the province has determined it is not.

Meanwhile, the premier said what he thinks people and the province need to focus on is a strategy to bring more people into southwestern Nova Scotia. “We’re talking about how do we go about designing a more robust tourism program that will highlight the advantages of travelling through southwestern Nova Scotia,” he said.

Asked if that’s what tourism and economic development minister Percy Paris was alluding to when he told a delegation from Yarmouth that the province could put up a sign in Digby to direct people attending the Wharf Rat Rally to Yarmouth, the premier said he’s sure the minister wasn’t suggesting that would be the be-all fix for this area’s tourism concerns. “He was just trying to come up with a specific type of example,” Dexter said. “What I’m talking about is a broad-based tourism program that promotes southwest Nova Scotia.”

But promotes it without a Cat ferry that is being funded by the province.

• Read more special articles :
• - Province says its decision stands, no more money for The Cat
• - Ferry terminal work contract cancelled
• - Cat’s loss may swipe other services
• - Cat will cost $3 million even though it won't sail